FLEMING loved this image and once used it in a flyer for The Book Collector. He thought it represented so well the torments of his hero that The Wound Man should be the title of his forthcoming book. His editor sympathised but told him to stick with Dr No.

A GOLD-PLATED Royal Quiet Deluxe (shown in use here) was what Fleming gave himself when he completed Casino Royale. It cost $174. When sold at Christies in May 1995 for £56,250 it entered the Guinness Book of Records as The World’s Most Valuable Typewriter.

WELCOME!

You’ve reached The Book Collector’s online resource, a meeting place for bibliophiles, booksellers, librarians and all who are interested in our literary heritage. Here you will find all that’s been going in this part of the book world since 1947 when George Bernard Shaw reminisced about the size of Karl Marx’s hat changing the course of history and five holograph manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, four letters by him and one manuscript in Mrs Wilde’s hand could be purchased at auction for £180.

The Book Collector was launched by Ian Fleming in the same year that he wrote Casino Royale. It is still the only journal in the world that deals with all aspects of the book. It prints notoriously independent opinions on subjects ranging from typography to national heritage policy, from medieval libraries to modern first editions. Among its features are articles on Stoning Charlotte Brontë, Eric Gill, W.G. Sebald, Chapbooks in Nigeria, the Hollidays’ bookshop in New York, Patrick O’ Brian’s pen-knife and Kenneth Williams’s handwriting. It has book reviews, reports from the sale rooms, obituaries, news of exhibitions and a wonderful archive. It’s pithy, dependable and thorough.

What you get for your money:

Four printed issues of 192pp each, sent by airmail where appropriate (cost included in the subscription)

Digital access to every single issue of The Book Collector, as printed, since its first appearance in 1952

Digital access to all issues of our predecessor, Book Handbook, which was published in twenty-eight numbers between 1947 and 1951

No restriction on the number of digital users

A new website with indexes covering every aspect of its sixty-five years of archive

International auction room sales since 1952 indexed by author, title, subject and collection

MOREOVER

This contains unique and original material covering an aspect of Ian Fleming’s career that has hitherto been obscured by the James Bond phenomenon. In addition to the regular edition of The Book Collector, the articles will be printed separately on hot metal for Fleming collectors. Click here to see more.

Click here to see a sample copy of The Book Collector. A year’s subscription costs £60, €90 or US $125 post free.